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LECTURE 



DELIVERED BEFORE 



YOUNG MEN'S 



iBSOCIMIOl 



OF AUGUSTA, 



APRIli lOth, 185 1. 



<?HOWtNG AFRICAN SLAVERY TO BE CONSISTENT WITH 
SHOWlNU^AHtltA^^^LA ^^ PHYSICAL PROGRESS 

OF A NATION. 



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BV C. ti. MEMMI3VGKR, 

Of Charleston, 3. C. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST 0^ THE ASSOClATlOJf, 



AUGUSTA, GA. 

Vr. S, JONES, NEWSPAPER, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER. 



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LECTURE 



DELIVERED BEFORE 



YOOTG MEFS 

HBMII MSeCIAf 101, 

OF AUGUSTA, 

APRIL 10th, 185 1. 

SHOWING AFRICAN SLAVERY TO BE CONSISTENT WITH 

THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL PROGRESS 

OF A NATION. 



BY C. G. M E M M I N G E R , 

Of Charleston, 8. C. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE ASSOCIATION. 



AUGUSTA, GA. 
W. S. JONES, NEWSPAPER, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER. 
1851. 



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L 1 ©T y [^ 



ON THE 



INSTITIJTIOI OF SLAVERY. 



After ages of conflict with each other, the Nations of the 
world are now almost entirely occupied with internal struggles. 
Politicians and statesmen have ceased to regard the foreign re- 
lations of a State as the primary object of consideration, and 
have united with the philosopher in examining the foundations 
and structure of Society itself. Conquest and Dominion no 
longer engross attention, but the various portions of society 
have turned upon each other to scrutinize their respective claims 
to power and property, and to insist upon new principles of ad- 
justment and distribution. In Europe, on the one hand 
the Socialists of France leagued with their allies, the Chartists, 
of England, and the Neologists, of Germany, assail existing in- 
stitutions, and contend for a vague principle of absolute equali- 
ty; while on the other, are found the combined forces of all 
who would preserve existing orders and relations. 

The upheavings of this mighty conflict have reached our 
own country, and are indicated by the convulsions which are 
still agitating our peace. Following the example of the crafty 
and far sighted men, who have shaped the policy of England, 
the leading minds of the North have sought to turn the current 
which was bearing down upon themselves, into a more distant 
channel, which might give vent to its fury without injury to 



©:s^3^ ■ >^^3Qi 

I 4 I 



themselves. Seeins: Iiow suecessfully tlie people of ICno^land 
had been amused witfi the notion of human protrress, by eman- 
cipatincT the slaves in tlie West Indies, these votaries of a chari- 
ty which l)egins and ends at home, have followed in the same 
track m our country, and, witli equal success, have diverted the 
attention of the whole band of Social Keformers from themst^lves, 
and turned them upon us of the South and our Institutions. 
We are set down amoui^ the enemies of human rights, (as they 
call them,) and to reform us is the first <Treat duty with which 
they !»ave charged themselves. Such a scheme, unhappily for 
us, falls in with the views of both the contending oarties in 
Europe. The Socialists rejoice at the prospect of another ad- 
vance of their system; while the Aristocrat and Monarchist, 
add to the hope of overturning the only sanctuary of Constitu- 
tional Liberty, the certainty of divert,ing the attention of their 
own turbulent multitudes. "*■ 

These mighty influences have turned the attention of the 
civilized world upon the South and her institution of Slavery. 
We stand surrounded by a host of enemies, and when to these 
are added the sectional politicians of our own country, who 
have joined in the crusade from a desire to secure to their own 
section the political power and patronage of the Federal Go- 
vernment, it seems wonderful that the South has withsFobd the 
first sweep of the teuipest. So far, however, from being over- 
whelmed, its force has but served to clear away the surface and 
enable us to discern more accurately the true nature of our soil. 
We were told that our foundations rested npon a volcano— nay, 
worse — that beneath us were caverns filled with armed men, 
who upon the first opportunity would break forth npon us. in the 
persons of our slaves, and desolate our land. Instead of this, 
not a stone has been moved, not a pillar has been shaken, and 
our enemies are confounded at the calmness and quiet determi- 
nation with which we are preparing for the next rush of the 

tempest. 

Under such circumstances, it has seemed to me a task not un- 
worthy of the occasion upon which we are now assembled, to ex- 
amine more minutely the structure of Society at the South, and 
ascertain the exact value of those aspersions upon us and our 
institutions, which are advanced by our enemies. They affirm 



tliat Slavery is a great social evil which lies as a curse upon us 
as a people, and opeiates as a blight upon our progress; that 
even its proximity is contaminating, and its injustice so great 
that they feel called upon as christians and as men to put an end 
to its existence. These charges, one or all, have been repeated 
in so many ways, and have been so completely engrafted into 
the literary and educational works circulated through even our 
Southern country, that they had ceased to be controverted; and 
even now there are many amongst us who, having received 
them without examination, tacitly admit their truth, and offer 
in extenuation the excuse of necessity. So greatly did this 
opinion prevail, that had the abolitionists been content to leave 
things alone, it is hazarding little to say, that in Kentucky, Vir- 
ginia, and Maryland, opinion would by this time have ripened 
into action. But agitation has induced inquiry, and inquiry 
elicits truth, and truth enables us now to stand erect before the 
world. That calm determination which accompanies con- 
sciousness of right, has taken the place of the restlessness and 
impatience with which we met the discussion of this subject. 
The truth is, that, when men doubt the justice of their cause, 
they have a secret misgiving that they must fail in argument, 
and they therefore prefer the uncertain ordeU of battle. But 
when they are settled in a conviction of right, firmness and 
courage find a resting place, and there is no farther danger 
from the impulses of passion. If, then, the Institutions of the 
South rest upon just and solid foundations, it is of the utmost 
importance that our people should thoroughly understand and 
be prepared to defend them. It is with this view that I proceed 
to inquire into the nature of African Slavery, and to ascertain 
whether it be an Institution favorable or injurious to the moral 
and physical progress of a Nation. 

I undertake to assert not only that the Institution of African 
Slavery, as it exists at the South, is not a National evil, but that 
it is positively favorable to the moral and physical progress both 
j of the master and of the slave. I am fully aware of the extent 
I of this assertion, and of the shock which it will carry to some 
minds ; but the time has come that Truth must awaken from the 
i dreams of morbid sentiment. 
i Much confusion and greater obloquy to this opinion, liave t 

B^;^ar=e - ->^^'o: 



arisen from the vague ideas which are attached to the word 
Slavery. In the itnao^ination of persons not acquainted practi- 
cally with our institution, slavery is associated with chains and 
tortures, and nameless cruelties. Sterne's highly wrought pic- 
ture comes up with the name of slavery, and the iron is sup- 
posed to be entering into every poor slave's soul. And when 
the Southern planter invites the enthusiast to the hut of the 
slave to observe the original of his picture, and points to the 
blazing pine knot, and the raised bedstead, with its ample co- 
vering of blankets, and the evening meal simmering at the fire 
place, and the wife and children merrily laughing around, or 
perhaps Cuffee himself, and his dame, coolly puffing forth vol- 
umes of smoke from their well filled pipes, he insists that the 
scene is unreal, and will not believe but that it was got up for 
the occasion. If, again, the planter shall insist upon taking him 
to his fields, and there show him the slave returning from his 
labor a few hours after midday, free from any further claims on 
his time until next morning, and at perfect liberty to work 
for himself, or otherwise to dispose of his time at his pleasure, 
the enthusiast again refuses to believe. He cannot bear to see 
overturned his favorite Dogma, namely, that slavery gives up the 
whole moral and physical existence of the slave to the power of 
the master. 

In this small germ lies the great fallacy which misleads those 
who have no experience of this subject. They regard slavery 
as asserting a claim in one man to dispose of the entire moral 
and physical action of another, and thereby destroying his moral 
responsibility; whereas, it is nothing more than a claim to his 
labor ; the same sort of claim which, when created by contract, 
the law enforces upon the freeman himself. It is true, that in 
the case of the slave, it involves in some degree a right to his 
person, physically considered, but this right is merely given as a 
means to enforce the right to his labor, and stands in the place 
of the power which the law gives to enforce contracts for labor 
between freemen. In neither case does it interfere with the 
moral being or relations of the individual. It is analogous to 
the right which the Municipal law gives to a husband over his 
i wife, and to the parent over his child. The exercise of this 

os:-^ ->-^iKSi 



right necessarily includes a power over the person, physically, 
but does not interfere with the discharge of the duties of the 
moral agent. As a husband — a father — a child — a creature of 
God — the duties of the slave are less interfered with, by their 
masters, than are those of many of their masters by the circum- 
stances which surround them. It is no objection to this view 
that many abuses exist; for doubtless abuses of even greater ex- 
tent exist in other relations, and it would be the wildest fanati- 
cism to destroy the institution of marriage, because many hus- 
bands ill-treat their wives, or to overturn parental authority, be- 
cause parents frequently abuse their power. 

LWhat, then, it will be asked, is it which makes the man a 
,ve? I answer in the words of a profound thinker of our 
day. It is " the obligation to labor for another, determined by 
the Providence of God, independently of the provisions of a 
contract. The right which the master has, is a right not to the 
man, but to his labor ; the duty which the slave owes, is the ser- 
vice which, in conformity with this right, the master exacts. 
The essential difference betwixt free and slave labor is, that one 
is rendered in consequence of a contract; the other is rendered 
in consequence of a command. The laborers in each case are 
equally moral, equally responsible, equally men. But they 
work upon different principles." 

It is necessary to clear up the confusion of ideas which ex- 
ists on this point, because it is made a stumbling block in the 
way of our first great position, that Slavery is sanctioned by the 
Law of God. I am free to express my opinion that nothing 
can promote the permanent good of a Nation which is opposed 
to God's Law. " Righteousness indeed exalteth a nation, but 
Sin is a reproach to any people." Therefore, when the oppo- 
nents of slavery charge upon the institution that it assumes to 
convert a man into a thing, and to deprive him of moral respon- 
sibility, they make a charge which, if true, would unquestiona- 
bly condemn the institution as sinful. For it is plain that man 
cannot overturn the moral law or responsibilities which God has 
established. But surely the Almighty Himself is the best inter- 
preter of his own law, and of the duties which it creates ; and 
he who would appeal to a higher tribunal, proclaims himself an 



Infidel and an Atheist. To all, therefore, who receive the Bible 
as the Word of God, the sanction of that Book to the relation of 
master and slave, is just as conclusive evidence of its morality, 
as of the relation of husband and wife. And as well might 
it be contended in the one case, that because the Municipal law- 
gives up the wife to the power and absolute control of the hus- 
band, her moral being and responsibility are destroyed ; as in 
the other, that the master's right to the labor of his slave has 
destroyed his moral being. The truth is, that in either case, 
though there may be physical restraints, yet in the case oi the 
slave, his moral action is perhaps the more untrammelled of the 
two. For in this relation he is usually as free as his master him- 
self. His duties are different, but his obligation to perform them 
the same ; and as such they are prescribed and regulated and 
enforced by the Word of God, just as arc those of the child, the 
wife, or the citizen. 

I do not propose to occupy your time by renewing the proofs 
from the Old and New Testament, that the institution of slavery 
received a Divine sanction under both dispensations. It has al- 
ways appeared to me, that to those who receive the Bible as the 
Word of God, a single proof under each dispensation is perfect- 
ly conclusive. Under the old dispensation, the ultimate basis of 
all moral right and duty is found in the Ten Commandments; 
and if an honest Abolitionist were asked for the foundation on 
which rests his moral right to his wife or his house, he would 
answer that the Tenth Commandment prohibits another from 
even covetins: them. Is it not strange that he should overlook 
the very next words of the same Commandment, which equally 
forbids the coveting of his slave. For every Bible scholar 
knows that the word translated " servant " in our version, is 
" slave" in the original Hebrew. 

So, too, under the New Testament, St. Paul's epistle to Phile- 
mon, a slaveholder, seems to have been preserved for the very 
purpose of instructing this generation. Philemon's heathen 
slave runs away from his master, and at a far distant town hears 
St. Paul preach, and becomes converted. St. Paul's first act is 
to persuade him to return to his master, and he sends him with 
± this most touching Letter, in which he begs the master by the i 



i 9 I 



I 



title of a " Brother beloved in the Lord," to forgive and receive 
back his slave, assuring him that he will find him doubly valua- 
ble, as he has now become a Christian. Surely those who are 
not convinced by this testimony, could not be convinced if one 
rose from the dead. 

II. I propose next to apply another test to the institution of 
slavery, which in other cases is usually regarded as conclusive. 
It is an appeal to the history and experience of mankind, in re- 
lation to this institution ; and a deduction from them as to its in- 
fluences. It is a most remarkable fact that the thn^e Nations 
which have exercised the o;reatest influence over the destinies of 
man, are precisely those in which slavery has existed in its full 
vigor, and under the sanction of their laws. I allude to the He- 
brews, the Greeks and the Romans. And what makes this fact 
still more remarkable, is, that the people who exerted this im- 
mense influence, in each case occupied a territory so small as 
scarcely to be appreciated in its relations to the rest of the world 
— a proportion seemingly as inconsiderable as a drop to the 
Ocean. 

The Hebrews occupied a small section of Syria, less than one 
hundred miles square, and yet they reached such a state of civil 
and social developement as seems almost incredible. Conceive 
of a country smaller than South Carolina, interrupted by moun- 
tains and occasional deserts, without one navigable stream, or 
commercial facilities of any kind, supporting in abundance a 
population of six millions of people — able to resist, for a time, 
the whole power of the Roman Empire, at the period of its 
greatest strength ; and with a people so brave, and leaders so 
skilful, that the Roman General himself acknowledged that but 
for the manifest interposition ot Deity, he could not have over- 
come them. Look at the influence of their writings and of their 
institutions ! They yet control the world, and will do so in all 
time to come. It is true that this is owing to their Divine In- 
spiration ; but that only varies the form, not the substance of the 
proposition. If slavery had been an institution unfavorable to 
the religious advancement of a people, it would be impious lo in- 
volve the honored name of God in its support, directly or indi- 
i rectly. The political institutions of the Hebrews, as well as 



■QJs^is- 



— >^^?5 



10 



their laws, were framed under the direction of God himseU. 
Their Government and Religion were parts of one entire whole, 
and Blas|^hemy as^ainst God was Treason against the State. 
In such a Government every positive institution has a Divine 
sanction, and when Moses, under such sanction, prescribes the 
powers by which slavery is to be established and continued ; 
and regulates the rights and duties incident to it, it is the most 
authentic declaration that such an institution was consistent 
with the moral duty and the social happiness of the people; and 
when the oracles nnd institutions of God are delivered by him 
to such a people for safe-keepin g and propagation, and he makes 
use of these men, slaveholders as they are, to write down his Re- 
vealed Truths, and to hand them down from age to age, it is the 
strongest possible recommendation of them and their institutions 
to the favor of mankind. Well might they claim for themselves 
the highest rank among their fellow men. 

We are not informed as to the number of slaves which exist- 
ed among the Hebrews. 'I'he few facts, however, which the 
Bible mentions incidentally, enable us to perceive thtit the insti- 
tution must have taken deep root. Abraham, the Head and Fsl- 
ther of the nation, himself, owned 318 slaves born in his own 
house — that is to say, born of slave parents belonffing to him. 
By the Laws of Moses, a Hebrew could sell himself into slavery, 
and although he was to go out free the seventh year, yet, if he 
married a slave, his wife and children were to remain slaves 
with their master. And so far from this being regarded as a 
hard case or unjust, and so far from attempting to deliver the 
wife and children from what Abolitionists would call the tyran- 
ny of the master, the law proceeded in the opposite direction, and 
prescribed that the husband and father might continue with his 
wife and children by returning to his condition of slavery; and 
upon indicating his desire before the Judges, he was thenceforth 
to " serve his master forever." 

It is also to be observed that the Hebrews established their 
polity in a conquered country, and that a large number of the 
conquered people remained among them. These were all re- 
duced into the condition of slavery, and they and their descen- 
dants were, by positive law, consigned to that condition forever. 



Q 



i iL I 



In this law is practically established, that great principle upon 
which African Slavery rests, namely : that two races of people 
diffdring essentially in civilization and character, can live in the 
presence of each other only in the relation of master and slave. 
This principle has since been tested by the experience of after 
ages; but the Hebrew Law Giver was gnided by a wisdom 
which needed no light from experience ; which saw the end 
from the be/mnino^, and which conld not err. The Hebrew Na- 
tion, so long as it retained its inslitntions in their purily, advanc- 
ed in power and civilization, until undor David and Solomon, 
their sway extended from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates, 
and their commerce controlled the Treasures of Ophir and the 
Ships of Tarshish. 

The support which is given to the institutions of the South, 
by the laws and institutions of the Hebrews, has induced not 
only Abolitionists, but many others, who, without being Aboli- 
tionists, are opposed to slavery, to place those institutions on 
other foundations, than upon the positive sanction of God. 
They suppose that God, in deference to human passion or preju- 1 
dice, permitted, under the Hebrew Government, evils which 
could not be removed, and that slavery was among these evils. 
The supposition in the first place contounds the distinction be- j 
tween permission and command. Sin and crime are permitted jt 
by the Providence of God; but they are Uiver commanded./^ 
We read no where of any institiuion of the Hebrews, whereby ' 
sin or crime in any form is sanctioned or continued. If slavery j 
were a sin, the command to the Hebrew to go before the Judges j 
and express his desire to continue therein, and the direction to 
continue therein forever, would be as impious as a similar de- 
claration to the adulterer, or the thief, or idolator. 

Those who take this view of the Hebrew Government are 
moreover superficial observers, who have never realized the pro- 
found and superhuman wisdom with which that Government is 
framed. It may surprise even some of us to be told that the 
great principle of a Federative Republic, which is supposed to 
be the discovery of our American Constitution, lies at the foun- 
dation of the Hebrew Polity. Their system, like ours, em- 
braced a Federal and a State Government. Each tribe, for lo« 



12 



cal purposes, was independent of every other, jnst as our States 
are; and what is remarkable as a coincidence, they had thirteen of 
these States, just as we had when we commenced. For general 
purposes they had a General Government over the whole thirteen 
tribes, consisting of a Chief Magistrate, first called a Judge, and 
afterwards a F^ing, assisted by a Council of seventy Elders, called 
afterwards the Sanhedrim, and a larger body called in the Scrip- 
tures, the " Heads of the Congregation." The analogy which this 
form of Government bears to our own, is still more remarkable 
from the fact that the Chief Magistrate, as originally constituted, 
was elective, and continued so for some time, even when, contra- 
ry to the original plan of God, they persisted in making him a 
King. The same organization of a Chief Magistrate, Senate, or 
Council, and Congregation, appears also to have existed in each 
tribe. We read of some of the tribes seceding from the others, 
and even making war on them; and the final rending asunder 
of the two Kingdoms of Judah and Israel was a breaking up of i 
the Federal Union of the tribes, because of the threatened ty- '■ 

! ranny of Rehoboam, the Chief Magistrate, and the formation of , 
two new Confederacies. The slaveholding Hebrews, therefore, j 

' had embodied into their system, the supposed great discovery of j 
the 19th century in Government, 3000 years before that century { 

I began. j 

But there is one other feature in the Hebrew Polity still more ! 

: remarkable, and showing still more clearly that it was establish- 

I by a wisdom beyond human power. This feature is, that its | 

I whole structure rests upon a principle which directly overturns i 

j all the wild theories of the Communists and Socialists of the | 

present day, and supports those systems of society which have 1 

hitherto proved most stable and happy. The Socialist contends i 

for a system in which there are but two parts, individuals upon i 

I an absolute equality, and the State or Government as the com- [ 

j mon head of all. The State, as the common parent, must pro- | 

I vide equally for the support, for the education of all ; the indi- 

j vidual is merged in the common mass ; a mere unit in a com- | 

I mon whole, and acting not for himself but for the common ben- ! 

I efit. Every intermediate power or control, or authority, is dis- i 

i claimed as an infringement upon the absolute equality of the in- | 

sa^-t ^— " »>^iRSI 



— >>®ffiKa 



dividual 5 and no right to command nor duty to obey, is recog- 
nized, save that which emanates from the collective will of the 
State. 

The Hebrew polity proceeds upon a principle diametrically 
opposite. The State takes no notice of the individual as such 
— it is a mere aggregation of tribes. The tribe is a mere aggrega- 
tion of families ; and in the family at length the individual is first 
recognized. But so far from equality prevailing here, it is just 
the reverse. The father of the family is an absolute Monarch — 
a Patriarch. His will is the law of the household. He is 
clothed with an authority derived from God himself; and full in 
view before the child, is presented as one of the Ten Command- 
ments, the Commandment with promise : " Honor thy father and 
thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land^j/ The details 
of the law follow up this injunction, and death is ordered to be 
inflicted upon a rebellious and irreverent child. Reverence and 
obedience is taught by every prophet, and age is looked up to as 
something sacred. " Thou shall rise up before the hoary head 
and honor the face of the old man." This principle works from 
the family to the tribe. The Council or Senate, is composed of 
Elders; and the Congregation, of Heads of Families; and still 
further in their General Government, the Sanhedrim is compos- 
ed of Elders and Patriarchs. Every where, throughout the 
Hebrew polity, the same principles of Reverence and Submis- 
sion are taught, and the principle of equality is repudiated. 
Every where is it made the duty of the parent to direct, to edu- 
cate and provide for the child; every where the duty of the child 
to reverence and obey his parent. " Cursed be he that setteth 
light by his father or his mother." And in the fearful case of 
Eli, God himself sends his message in the following awful 
terms: "Behold,! will do a thing in Israel, at which both the 
ears of every one that heareth it, shall tingle. In that day, I 
will perform against Eli, all things which I have spoken con- 
cerning his house; when I begin, I will also make an end. For 
I have told him that I will judge his house forever, because his 
sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not ; and 
r therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity 



gji^s-e - — f-^mo 

f 14 I 



of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering 
forever." 

Here, then, in the Hebrew polity, we have the Family as the 
basis and origin of all government. The individual is only 
known as one of a Family. His duties and rights are measured 
by his position there. If he is the father, he commands ; if the 
son, he obeys. In the one case he provides and gives ; in the 
other, he takes and receives. Inequality and dependence prevail 
throughout; all benefit or all suffer from the good or evil of 
each. The duties of each are correspondent, and the result is 
mutual support, confidence and affection. The union of fami- 
lies, then, forms the tribe, and the union of tribes forms the na- 
tion, and the same principle of reverence and submission is 
transferred frouione to the other. And thus, by a chain as sim- 
ple and universal as that which keeps the planets in their spheres, 
the simple precept of the Fifth Commandment, is made to bind 
together States and Empires, and to cause government to be ad- 
ministered in harmony and peace. 

A few moments' reflection will show that Southern Society, in 
common with that of the most stable Governments known to 
history, rests upon this Family or Hebrew basis. The great 
distinguishing difference between English tind French Society 
is, the greater dignity which the family enjoys among the En- 
glish. 'I'he home of the Ensrlishman is his custle, both in law 
and in fact; around it cluster all his sympathies, and to its hap- 
piness and welfare, all his powers are devoted. f'^^The French, 
on the other hand, are fond of general society; oT^public inter- 
course. The family circle is merged in the larger circle of the 
Opera and the Saloon. The English are the most conserva- 
tive and orderly people known ; the French the most fickle and 
revolutionary. 

The Slave Institution at the South, increases the tendency to 
dignify the family. Each planter is in fact a PiUriarch — his 
position compels him to be a ruler in his household. From 
early youth, his children and servants look np to him as the 
head, and obedience and subordination become important ele- 
ments of education. Where so many depend upon one will. 
Society necessarily assumes the Hebrew form. Domestic rela- 
tions become those which are most prized— each family recogni- 



I 15 I 



ses its duty, and its members feel a responsibility for its dis- 
charge^ ; The Fifth Commandment becomes the foundation of 
Society. \ The State is looked to only as the ultimate head in 
external relations, while all internal duties, such as support, edu- 
cation, and the relative duties of individuals, are left to domestic 
regulation. In consequence of this, it has followed, that the 
South has ever been more steady and conservative than the 
North. The levelling ultraisms of the day have never found 
here a congenial s^yil ; and even the movements of the Govern- 
ment have constantly received their check from this quarter. 
The constant tendency here, is against the increase of Corpo- 
rate or Federal power, and in favor of individual developement; 
and the result is a dislike of absolute majorities, or any other 
central power, which disregards the rights or feelings of its sec- 
tions or parts. 

Having shown so much at large the influences of slavery among 
the Hebrews, I shall treat more summarily the testimony borne 
in its favor, by the other two nations most prominent in 
Ancient history. 

The name of Athens is associated in the mind of the states- 
man, the scholar, and the artist, with the highest attainments of 
human genius. The men who achieved those great results, 
with which the history of this people abounds, were Slavehold- 
ers. These men have stamped their names upon the memory 
of ages, and command the reverence and esteem of the human 
race. The State of which they were citizens, was a little cor- 
ner of Greece, no larger than the county in which we now are ; 
yet, to such a pitch of grandeur and excellence did they raise 
that little commonwealth, that it has exerted a more powerful 
influence on mankind than the great Assyrian Empire, of An- 
cient days, or the Russian of modern. Yet this State was a 
slave State. With a population not exceeding twenty thousand 
citizens who were able to bear arms, ihey held no less than 
four hundred thousand slaves. And this handful of men not 
only enjoyed internal peace and security ; not only produced the 
greatest orators and historians, and philosophers, and poets, and 
statesmen, and painters and sculptors, of the world, but they sent 
forth armies and navies, and made great empires subsidiary to 



I 16 1 



them. The Slave Institution it was, that enabled them to de- 
volve physical labor upon others, and to devote their whole en- 
ergies to literary, intellectual, and warlike pursuits. The re- 
sults of those energies are even here amongst us, in this our 
Western World. Demosthenes and Aristotle still speak to us 
the notes of eloquence and philosophy. Pericles and Xeno- 
phon stand out before us yet, as the gifted leaders of Senates and 
of Armies. Themistocles and Salamis, still cause to glisten the 
eye of the old and the young; and Socrates and Plato, yet 
speak in our ears the gentle sounds of their Academic teaching. 
Each one of these was a slaveholder, and lived and died in 
a slaveholding State, and upheld, and practically supported the 
Institution of Slavery. And the Athenian Slave Republic will 
ever stand forth a blazing Beacon to exhibit the fact, that the 
highest developernent of man, in every department of literature, 
art and science, among the Ancients, was attained where Slave 
Institutions had always existed, and had attained their fullest 
vigor and maturity. 

The same testimony is borne by the Romans, that other 
greatest people of antiquity. Among them, slavery existed from 
the days of the Kings to the final extinction of the empire, 
through a period of more than one thousand years. The pow- 
er of the master was so absolute as to extend even over the life 
of the slave. Perhaps at no time known to history, have more 
civilized nations been combined under one Government, and 
exhibited more national developernent, than from the reign of 
Augustus Caesar to that of Constantine. The public works of 
this period, and the contributions to literature and science, even 
now are not surpassed ; and if external conquests, and internal 
peace, and the growth of arts and population, are indications of 
national prosperity, then was the Roman Empire foremost of any 
nation which has yet existed. And what was the social condi- 
tion and institutions under which this prosperity was attained? 
As far back as the Decemviri, the Slave Institution had attained 
full vigor, as is proved by the abuse made of it, in the case of 
Appius and Virginia. It continued through the whole period 
of the commonwealth ; and in the early days of the Empire, by 
a census taken under Claudius Caesar, it appeared that the num- 



— -►»'^^Sf 

17 I 



ber of slaves amounted to twenty millions, which was equal to 
the number of free persons. And yet, with so numerous a 
body of slaves, a fragment of Italy, consisting of a single city 
and its adjoining territory, had conquered the civilized world, 
and then held under their dominion one hundred and twenty 
millions of men, reaching from Britain to the Indus. So com- 
plete was their authority throughout this immense region, that 
it was exercised without an effort, and commanded equal obe- 
dience on the Banks of the Thames, or of the Nile, as on those of 
the Tiber. And this was a slave State ; and its Senators and 
Consuls, and Poets, and Philosophers, were all slaveholders. 
Yes ! Cicero was a slaveholder, and Cato was a slaveholder, and 
Virgil, and Tacitus, and Seneca. From the Caasar on the 
throne, to the smith who forged for him his sword, all were 
slaveholders, and never, until these latter days of Abolition dis- 
covery, was it surmised that, because they were slaveholders, 
they or any of their countrymen were less competent to the 
duties of Roman Citizens. The extent of the institution may 
be conceived from the fact that, in a single palace in Rome, 400 
are mentioned as having been maintained, and Gibbon tells 
us of an African widow, of a very private condition, who gave 
up an estate to her son, with four hundred slaves upon it, while 
she reserved for herself a much larger portion. We also read, 
in the time of Augustus, of a single freedman. who, though his 
fortune had suffered greatly in the civil wars, still left an estate 
with 4,116 slaves upon it. 

Thus have we brought under review the testimony afforded 
by the social condition of the three most cultivated and influen- 
tial nations of antiquity. It establishes that slavery, if not the 
actual cause of their advancement, singularly coincided in con- 
tributing to it, and was at least no hindrance to the attainment 
of the highest excellence. An examination of modern expe- 
rience will equally conduce to the same result. The Provi- 
dence of God has spread before us so many facts bearing upon 
this point, that even the blind may read them. This 
Western World of ours is the great field upon which they are 
exhibited. The first of these to which I shall refer, is the spec- 
tacle of three millions of negroes now here among us, and I ^ 

eJj^s^ — '^^^W) 



18 



would ask you to compare their condition with their countrymen 
in Africa. The history of the world cannot produce such an 
instance of the advance of any barbarous people in civilization. 
The savage has been converted into a civilized man. Instead 
of brutal ignorance and degradation, he is advanced to a condi- 
tion of comfort and intelligence, and social progress, equal, if 
not superior, to many portions of Europe. Another fact still 
more striking, which these same slaves exhibit, is, that this same 
traduced Slave Institution has been the instrument, under God, 
for converting more Pagans to Christianity, than all the other 
efforts put together, of all the Christian world. Among the 
Baptist and Methodist Denominations alone, there are, at this 
moment, more slave Christians in full standing as Communi- 
cants, than all the heathen converts in all the Missions put to- 
gether, at all the Missionary Stations throughout the world. 
And all these persons, but for the slave institutions, would have 
been as far beyond Christian effort as their countrymen still are 
in the Africa which they have left. It is clear, therefore, that so 
far as the Negro is concerned, his social progress has been great- 
ly advanced. 

That this result is due, not only to the removal of the Negro 
to this country, but to his continuance in slavery, w;ill appear 
by contrasting their condition with that of the Indians. In 
North America, or rather in the United States, where the Indi- 
ans were never reduced to slavery, the race is nearly extermina- 
ted ; while among the Spaniards, where whole nations were 
reduced to slavery, and sometimes under circumstances of very 
great cruelty, the native Indians have been preserved to such an 
extent, that they have taken the country from the Spaniards, their 
conquerors. In the West Indies, another course was taken. The 
good Las Casas, with the mistaken philanthropy of the Wilbsr- 
forces and Buxtons, of our day, introduced the hardier Negro to 
save the Indian from the cruelties of slavery. The result is, 
that the free Indian is exterminated, while the slave Negro is 
under every plaintain bush and hedge, thriving among his 
pumpkins. Thus, too, in the United States, the tender mercies 
of the free States have exterminated the Indian, are thinning 
off, and will soon expel the Negro from amongst them, while at 



19 



the South, the Negro in his state of slavery thrives and extends 
and becomes a Christian man. 

Another page of these great facts is opened to us, in the com- 
parative condition of nations where the ^egro and the white man 
are brought together under relations of freedom and of slavery. 
In Africa, where the Negro is master, he remains in savage bar- 
barism, and will not tolerate the presence of the white man. 
In St. Domingo, Jamaica and other West India Islands, the ex- 
periment was made of reducing him to slavery and subjecting 
him to the dominion of the white man. The result was a pro- 
gress in agricultural and commercial development, not sur- 
passed in the history of the world. These Islands became gar- 
dens, and the value of their products was so great, that they 
became prizes for the great contending powers of Europe. 

Their progress was first interrupted by the change of their 
social order, first introduced by France in the Island of St. 
Domingo. The horrors which followed the attempt to convert 
the slaves into freemen, have been recorded by history ; but the 
final result is now in the course of action. The Island has 
already receded into barbarism —pagan rites have actually been 
resumed in various parts. A tyrannical military despoiism is 
the only semblance of Government ; and the only portion of the 
Island which can be recognized as part of the former garden of 
the Antilles, is the little corner which has remained under the 
Spanish authority, and which still retains the slave institution. 

The absolute failure of this experiment to place the Negro and 
white man upon an equal footing, induced the British Philan- 
thropists to proceed on another plan. Historians and Philoso- 
phers had condemned the French attempt as sudden and ill- 
conducted. The English, therefore, determined to try their 
experiment in Jamaica, upon a more just and gradual system. 
The owner of the slave was to receive compensation, and the 
slave himself to pass through an apprenticeship of training for 
his new condition. The wisest and best men of England tho- 
roughly digested their scheme; and the military and naval 
powers of a great empire were put in requisition to carry it out. 
The horrors of St. Domingo have indeed been saved; but deso- 
lation and ruin have nevertheless followed. Jamaica, like St. 

m^m< — >^@ji 



20 



Domingo, now exhibits abandoned fields and ruined houses. 
Her commerce has shrunk away — her white population is daily 
disappearing^, and even the English fathers of the scheme have 
been compelled to acknowledge that, the Negro himself has been 
the greatest sufferer from its failure. The white man abandons 
his home and property and escapes, while the Negro indulges 
his natural indolence, and relapses into barbarism.* 

Alongside of these dilapidated and almost ruined Islands, 
separated from one of them only by a narrow strait, stands the 
Island of Cuba, where the Slave Institution exists in full vigor. 
With all the disadvantages of a Colony subject to a foreign 
master, and that master, the Spanish Government, this Island 
exhibits every indication of agricultural and commercial pros- 
perity. Not only does it sustain its own Colonial Government 
and people in abundance, but millions are contributed annually 
to the support of the worn out monarchy, which claims its alle- 
giance. Every traveller who visits the Island, returns with 
marvellous accounts of its beauty, resources and development, 
and the cupidity of the world has been awakened for its posses- 
sion. While the other islands, one and all, are in the process 
of decay, this is in full progress to national greatness and de- 
velopment. In the other Islands, slavery has been abolished ; 
in this it has been preserved. 

If we turn our eyes to our own country, we shall find results 
which lead to similar conclusions. We have been so much in 



*Mr. Bigelow, in hi» work entitled "Jamaica in 1850," gives a number of 
facts which, notwithstanding his evident prejudices in favor of emancipation, nre 
conclusive against the scheme. In one part of his work he nays that the great 
advantage* of being proprietors of Innd, cause the negroes to be very desirous of 
owning it. And yet in the neighborhood of Kingston, land only sells at $1 per 
acre. He further tplls us that provisions are four times dearer in Kingston than 
in New York, and that labor is worth 24 cents a day ; that is to say, four days 
labor will buy an acre of land, where its produce is four times more valuable than 
in New York Let any one compare this, with the value of land in the neigh- 
borhood of New York, ($100 per acre) and he will have some idea of the dilapi- 
dation of Jamaica. 

But to complete the comparison, another fact stated by Mr. Bigelow should be 
noted. It relates to the quality of this black labor. "In the sugar mills from 20 
to 30 men and women will be employed to do what 5 American operatives would 
do much better in the same time, with the aid of such labor-saving agencies as 
would suggest themselves at once to an intelligent mind." Follow up this ratio 
of five to one, and an acre of land is in fact worth less than one day's labor of an 
American laborer, and that too, in a country where the land is four times more 
productive. Can anything speak more strongly of the results of this system. 



o:^ ■ — -— -^-^^im 

W 21 



the habit of receiving all our facts and reasonings, as we receive 
our goods, from the JSorth, that we have never disputed their 
assertion that our institutions had operated unfavorably upon 
our relative progress. We are greatly indebted to Elwood 
Fisher for leading the way to right conclusions on this subject. 
We have been so much accustomed to regard Steamboats and 
Railroads and sreut cities as the true indications of national 
prosperity, that we had lost sight of the great truth, that national 
prosperity is really but the aggregation of the happmess and pros- 
perity of individuals. Railroads and Steamboats and great cities 
are to be found in Egypt, and Russia, and India, as well as in 
New York and Massachusetts, while the masses are actually 
suffering from want. The greatest public work now standing 
in the world, the Pyramids of Egypt, is really a monument of 
the individual wretchedness which must have been suffered by 
the vast multitude, whose labor was compelled to rear them. 

A just comparison, then, of the condition of two people, can 
only be made by comparing the relative comforts, happiness, 
intellisrence and virtue of its individuals. The facts for such a 
comparison between the North and the South are numerous ; 
but for an occasion like the present, the detail of them would be 
a tax upon your patience. But it may be proper to remark 
generally, that pauperism and crime, which are the two great 
indications of want and vice, are much greater at the North, in 
proportion to the population, than at the South, even after ma- 
king proper allowances for the immigrant population among 
them. In New York in 1844, one out of every five of the in- 
habitants received public charity, in Massachusetts one out of 
every twenty. Large numbers of able bodied men are inclu- 
ded. In 1848 in Boston, there were 19,000 paupers, of whom 
7,413 only were foreigners, in New York and Massachusetts 
together there are 100,000 paupers, and they increase at the 
rate of 200 per cent, for ten years, while the population itself 
only increases 20 per cent. Let any Southern man compare 
these facts with what he sees around him and draw his own 
conclusion. 

So, too, with crime. The number of convicts in the three 
Penitentiaries of New York was 2,000, at the same time that in 



22 



all the Stale of Virginia there were but 200 white and black. 
If we take what its people are pleased to call the land of steady- 
habits, namely, all New England, and compare their Penitentiary 
convicts with those of Virginia, they are just twice as nu- 
merous in proportion to the population. The statistics of the 
city of New York exhibit that a larger number of criminals exist 
in that one city, than in all the Southern States put together. 
And if we go back to New England, we find in Massachusetts 
alone 7,009 committed in a single year, and of these only 1,165 
were foreigners. But to come still nearer the point of com- 
parison, take Ohio and Kentucky, which are only separated by 
the Ohio River. In Ohio there are 470 criminals in the Peni- 
tentiary; in Kentucky only 130 — and of this 130, one half are 
at Louisville, on the border, and a third of the whole number 
are from free States. 

So, too, if we appeal to the positive indications of prosperity, 
the same surprising results will be found. The vast emigration 
into the North, and the expenditure there of most of the Federal 
Revenues, give so much activity and bustle to every thing, that 
our senses are imposed upon by appearances. But the rigid 
forms of figures which our ten years census afford, will not bend 
to fancy. These tables, made out by Northern men themselves, 
exhibit the surprising fact that the native population of the 
South increases faster than that at the North. Leaving out the 
emigrants to the North from 1840 to 1850, their population has 
increased 19 per cent.; while in the South it has increased 28 
per cent., nearly 50 per cent, more than the natural increase of 
the North. We have before us now the results of 60 years, 
from the first census in 1790 to the last in 1850. From these 
we may fairly institute a comparison, and in doing so, we will 
allow the North to select their own four model New England 
States, and compare them with the Southern State which they 
traduce and vilify most, namely. South Carolina. Massachu- 
setts, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island, like South 
Carolina, were parts of the original 13. The area of the four 
New England States is 23,117 square miles, and their aggregate 
population in 1790 was 827,867. Their aggregate population 
in 1850 was 1,831,234, a little under 122 per cent. 



O.S^gK-- 



23 



The area of South Carolina is 24,000 sqaare miles, or nearly 
the same as the ibur New England States. By the census of 
1790 her population was 249,073. By the census of 1850 it is 
668,557, a little over 168 per cent. Let it be observed, more- 
over, that the whole emigrant population is included in the 
Northern census, of whom, in Boston alone, there are 60,000, 
and in the State of Massachusetts one-fifth of the entire popu- 
lation, while at the South there is no such population to any 
extent. And thus it appears that under all these disadvantages, 
the increase of South Carolina under Slave Institutions is 46 
per cent, greater than the model States of the North, 

If the comparison were extended between the State of Geor- 
gia and the North, the difference would be still more remarkable. 
For this great State has increased in population nearly 50 per 
cent, in the last ten years, and excels in rapidity of growth any 
that can be brought in competition. 

But we are told that we are behind the age in all the enter- 
prises of our day. Let us point to the Charleston and Hamburg 
Kailroad, and to the Georgia Railroad, which were for years the 
longest Railroads in the world, and the pioneers of those enter- 
prises. Let us invite them to this flourishing city and visit its 
Manufactories and see its energy ; to ride even to Chattanooga 
and look through the Tunnel in the Cumberland Mountain — 
and let them examine our Rivers and see where Steamboats are 
absent where Nature will permit their presence. And above all, 
let us take them to our farms and plantations and homes, and 
shew them our people, white and black, well clothed, well fed, 
and well housed, contented and happy if they would but leave 
us to ourselves. 

If we turn our attention to the external indications of the two 
regions, they are still more remarkable. Who needs to be told 
that the great articles which support the commerce of the United 
States, viz : Cotton, Tobacco and Rice, are the products of the 
South, and that its Cotton actually controls the commerce and 
exchanges of the world. And all this is the result of the Slave 
Institution ; and the people who have effected these results are 
Slaveholders. 

Having compared the two sections as entire Nations, let us 



I 24 ^ 



now finally compare them as individuals. The Cona^resses, 
Synods and Conventions in which they meet are common arenas, 
on which their intellectual and moral powers are exhibited. In 
which of all these has it ever appeared that Southern men were 
not fully the equals of the Northern? Take any department of 
war or peace, and inquire whence have come the Generals and 
Statesmen, and Presidents who have stamped renown on our 
history. Washington and Jefferson, and Madison, and Monroe, 
and Jackson, and Tyler, and Polk, and Taylor, eight out of 
twelve Presidents, were Southern men and Slaveholders. The 
two Generals who have added another volume to the conquest 
of Mexico, were both Southern men, and the two great Generals 
of the last war with England were Jacki^on and Scott, both 
Southern men and South Carolinians. War, like other convul- 
sions, brings into action the most powerful elements wherever 
they may happen to lie hid — and this war with Great Britain 
brought to the aid of the country its truest and best sons 
wherever they might be. How did the Slave States appear on 
this occasion? What contribution did they make to the com- 
mon cause? South Carolina alone, the smallest of them, con- 
tributed at the satiie period a Speaker to the House of Represen- 
tatives in Congress, (Mr, Cheves ;) a President of the Senate, 
(Mr. Gaillard ;) a Chairman ot the Committee of Foreign Rela- 
tions, (Mr. Lowndes ;) a Chairman of the Committee of Ways 
and Means, (Mr. Calhoun ;) four Generals, (Jackson, Pinckney, 
Hampton, Scott,) and most of these retained their place in the 
affections and confidence of the people, and exhibited the highest 
talent and character during their whole lives. Other Southern 
States have made contributions equally distinguished for genius 
and statesmanship. The names of Marshall, of Randolph, of 
Clay, and Mason, and Crawford, and Forsyth, and of the new 
tribute of South Carolina, in Hayne and Hamilton, McDuffie 
and Preston, establish beyond doubt the equal if not superior 
claims ot the South, to the meed of patriotism, genius and virtue. 
On every hand, then, we find the evidence accumulating in 
favor of the results to those regions where slavery has existed. 
A single fact more will add the climax to what has been said, 
i The only portions of America which have succeeded in forming 1 



"♦^^"Sl 



i 



u 25 U 



for themselves stable governments, are precisely those where 
African Slavery prevails, namely, our own country and Bnizil. 
That this Institution is the important element which leads to this 
self-supporting result, was shown by that great Master of Politi- 
cal Science, Mr. Burke, long before we ourselves understood its 
nature. With a penetration and forecast which seems almost 
prophetic, this ^reat statesman has accurately shewn the eleva- 
ting and liberalizing influence of the Slave Institution upon the 
master ; and the history of our country has proven the South to 
be the ffreat conservative balance wheel of the Confederacy. 
Neither innovations upon the Constitution, nor any of the ultra- 
isms of the day can take root here; and if the North shall con- 
tinue their frantic measures against our peace, and compel us to 
leave them, they will soon discover that they have parted not 
only with a good customer, but with their best and truest friends. 
It is time, however, that the South should put aside its leading 
strino-s and claim the rights of manhood. It is time that she 
should lean more upon herself and develope her internal re- 
sources. It is time that she should insist that her property should 
be respected, and abuse of her institutions should cease. Slavery 
ouo-ht no longer to be received by us as a reproach. We should 
avow our support of it upon principle. We should maintain 
its consistency with justice and right, and with our physical, 
intellectual and moral progress as a people ; and when we shall 
have been firmly settled in these convictions, we shall be pre- 
pared to meet any issue which fanaticism at home or inter- 
ference from abroad may precipitate upon us. 



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LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



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